Lifetimes of ignorance have brought us to identify the whole
of our being with ego. Its greatest triumph is to inveigle us into believing
its best interests are our best interests, and even into identifying our very
survival with its own. This is a savage irony, considering that ego and its
grasping are at the root of all our suffering. Yet, ego is so terribly
convincing, and we have been its dupe for so long, that the thought that we
might ever become egoless terrifies us. To be egoless, ego whispers to us, is
to lose all the rich romance of being human, to be reduced to a colorless robot
or a brain-dead vegetable. Rinpoche, Sogyal
(2009-10-13). Glimpse After Glimpse: Daily Reflections on Living and Dying
(Kindle Locations 554-558). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
The theme of this
series of articles following the thought “There is more than meets the Eye”
Is served by the
forgoing quote from Sogyal, Rinpoche discussing ego, something which is well
known to all of us; it is well known and relied on as our identification and by
that our meaning. It is in fact distraction, diversion, something lying in wait
for us and continually defeats us in reaching beyond our egos.
The
misconstruction we have of the passage of time, we have of the reality of
materiality is much the same. What we perceive of it has the appearance of
being real; it influences our action; it does all kinds of distraction. But it
is damaging to us to believe in its priority of importance to our lives. The
trick of life is to learn how to walk away from these as the mighty Ulysses
closed his ears so he couldn’t hear as he sailed past the island where the sea
nymphs sang their siren song asking him to come and be with them.
The greatest
paradox of our life is this: Our experience of life does not include involvement
in the passage of time. We know of its passage in retrospect. We are able to
see pastime is the days gone before. We do not see the time to come we simply
trust it will because each day becomes yesterday on running its course. Why is
this? It is because we are constantly present, present in the time known as “now”
this instant, and then that too passes into the time that was.
We live in an
infinite moment made up of “Now.” It is a continuous “now!” Now has no before,
no after. That makes it what it is in the present moment. It may be affected by
before, influenced by before, it may be directed to after, but essentially it
stands alone in the moment, the presence of it totally in charge.
“Now,” this
present moment is under the direction of whatever power it was that provided us
with conception, gestation in the womb, birth into a space/time limited
dimension into which we carried our consciousness, not anything more, and
forgot a good portion of that consciousness. The lost or forgotten
consciousness waits for our return from this dimension. It is however in the
nature of this life that we can retain and use some of that forgotten as we
evoke the transcendent available to us in this life as discussed in previous
essays.
In the unique form
our “Life”, that period between our birth and our death, much of the
consciousness we carry into life is limited and for the interim is unknown by
us. All we know is what the material that constitutes who and what we are in
this life is able to perceive and develop knowledge from as we encounter it and
apply our consciousness and the latent talents or abilities that come with this
existence seem to have.
Like starting the
first day of work we do not carry into this new job “Life” a conception of what
to expect, a list of achievements we want to accomplish, a plan of how to do
it. When we first start dealing with the new day of work, or what it
metaphorizes: “Life” we do so from a
clean and blank slate.
We are able to perceive
what is within our field of encounter; soon we are able to perceive we are separate
and distinct from that which surrounds us. It is at this point our organic
brain kicks into action and we commence a time of data observation and data
storage, all managed by our consciousness and sorted by this body we seem to
occupy.
ONLYTHE MOMENT IS OURS TO DO is an essay posted on April 25, 2009,
which discusses the instant in time, the infinite moment, in which we act
as the overall plan interfaces with all of the other action of ours linked to
it.
The conclusion reached in that essay was this:
- · Retrospective view is the one insight given us from which we can learn something. When I look back I see this:
- · Everything that happened follows a direct course linked to the events which preceded it leading to it. One after another they all connect. In this way these previous events do influence the subsequent events.
- · It is as if they form a pattern. A pattern I have had little or no hand in formulating.
- · So many of the events are such that there is no way I would have chosen them to happen. They are no more directed by me than was my birth to my parents in the time frame it occurred with the gender choice for me as I entered this life.
- · The degree to which I stepped back out of the way eased the process of the happening of these events. The extent in which I could turn it over, let it be, go with the flow, the easier time the process has reaching its result.
- · As each of these events transpired, one following necessarily on the other, the pattern of them produced in my view a favorable result. Not a pattern I might have chosen. But, not something I would now choose to turn aside. I like the result in spite of what I would have had it be.
What is significant about it is the way it seems to happen. Anything I have done to defeat the plan fails or explodes all over me. Usually the plan’s choice of action occurs in spite of me. When I take control of my moments and try to direct my response it makes it harder for the natural consequence of my moments to occur. Having 75 years of living this experience I am convinced this is how it works!
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